Letters to the Editor

"Bad science?" Asking that the Alaska State Parks survey of Kenai River users be grounded in better scientific method confuses and minimizes the issues before us.

Unfortunately, good scientific method or not, here the appropriate definition of crowding is the placing of undue pressure or duress through constant solicitation.

For the foreseeable future, there can be no more apt description concerning the Kenai River's problems.

As long as public attitudes and mandated state policies support the unchecked growth of an ever expanding tourism industry by continuing to divert our resources to that end, the loss of our more traditional uses and the loss of our opportunities to utilize our own resources will also continue.

To hope for meaningful relief from the expansion of the pressures on our finite resources and to temper the selling off of a once cherished way of life, it will take public attitude changes to affect a more preservationist public policy.

The river and our residents can benefit from the choices we need to make ... better scientific methods won't change the issue.

Paul Zimmerman

Kasilof

Poet takes exception to Frank; says he mismanaged bank

"If it Ain't Broke, Don't Bust it"

Dear Governor Sir Honorable Frank:

What happened to a certain bank

called Alaska National Bank of the North?

Which was found guilty and so forth,

of breaching obligations imposed by a trust

upon which finding, that bank went bust.

The case was so bad, to boot,

Charles Cole couldn't win the suit.

Why was there such mismanagement

when you were bank president?

The latest news has left us stunned --

you want to mess with the Permanent Fund?

Respectfully,

little 'ol me...

Brent Johnson

Clam Gulch

Alaska's economic future depends on natural gas line through state

On Feb. 25, the state of Alaska will establish the new Gas Authority which was overwhelmingly approved by 138,000 voters last November. The enactment of this new law will begin the journey to building the All Alaskan Gas Pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez with a spur to South Central Alaska.

Contrary to what the Alliance, the State Chambers of Commerce, and what the Anchorage Daily News believes, Alaskan voters are neither ignorant or confused. We knew exactly what we were voting on. Our jobs, not Canadian jobs. Our petrochemical industry, not Alberta's. Alaska, not Canada. Period.

This is the gas pipeline Alaska and America needs. We can ship our gas to California, the state which actually needs a steady source of natural gas. We need the newly generated revenues to close the fiscal gap and ensure that our permanent fund thrives. We need petrochemical infrastructures in Kenai, Mat-Su and Valdez for the value-added products.

Alaska needs the econmic boom that this project will bring to our economy immediately. We can't wait until the year 2020 to build the "Canadian Highway" project to nowhere.

I am happy to see that Gov. Frank Murkowski, in his State of the State address, supports the formation and funding of this new Gas Authority. His foresight will help lead the way to a more prosperous Alaska.

We demand that our representatives in Juneau fully fund this new Gas Authority and select its board of directors wisely.

The momentum that began with last November's election must not be allowed to slow. We have an opportunity to add thousands of permanent, high paying jobs to our economy, instead of fretting about the loss of a few hundred minimum wage jobs in the service sector. Contact your elected officials as often as you can. Keep them focused on our future with our gas.